Oil spill creates hazard

MADRID, Spain -- A damaged tanker carrying more than 20 million gallons of fuel oil broke in two off the northwest coast of Spain and sank Tuesday, threatening an environmental disaster.\nThe rear half vanished first, then the bow slipped under the surface. Images broadcast from the scene showed pieces of the boat some 150 miles out to sea.\nIf the Bahamas-flagged Prestige were to lose its entire cargo, the spill would be nearly twice the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. Some 10.92 million gallons of crude oil were lost from the Valdez.\n"We can say goodbye to the ship and its cargo," said Lars Walder, a spokesman for the Dutch salvage company SMIT.\nThe tanker ruptured last Wednesday during a storm. The salvage company estimated it had lost between 1.3 million and 2.6 million gallons of fuel so far. Most of the crew was airlifted off the ship last week.\nThe spill caused friction between Portugal and Spain over which government would be responsible for the clean-up, but prevailing winds put Spain's coast at a greater risk for damage from the spill.\nSpanish beaches were mired in oil and scores of animals were covered in sludge. Fishing was prohibited, putting hundreds out of work. The spill threatened some of the region's richest fishing grounds.\nSalvage company workers said the oil containers seemed to hold as the ship sank, and there was a chance they would remain intact as they settled on the sea floor, 11,800 feet down.\nBut worries about the potential for a massive environmental disaster grew. Fuel oil is more environmentally damaging than crude oil, said Maria Jose Caballero, who leads the coastal protection project for Greenpeace in Spain.\n"The vessel cracked in the hull because it was very old. There's nothing that makes us believe it won't finally burst and leak all its oil," she said.\nThe Prestige, owned by Mare Shipping Inc., of the Bahamas, was bound for Singapore when the storm hit. The American Bureau of Shipping, a Houston-based registration company that makes sure shipping papers are in order, said the Prestige was up to date with its inspections.\nThe vessel, built in 1976, is operated by the Greece-based Universe Maritime, Ltd., ABS said. The ship's last annual survey was carried out in Dubai in May, and a full drydock inspection was carried out in China in May, 2001, ABS said.\nA Universe Maritime spokesman complained that the damaged vessel had been exposed to storms because it had been forced so far off shore. The Spanish government had ordered the ship far from land to limit contamination.\nThe tanker sustained a 30- to 50-foot crack in the hull below the waterline which made it unable to proceed under its own power while salvagers sought a port to do repairs or transfer the oil to another ship.\nSpanish soldiers and volunteers were cleaning up some 40 miles of coastline between Cape Finisterre and the city of A Coruna, a town about 370 miles northwest of Madrid.\nAs onlookers gathered along the walled shoreline of Malpica, orange-jumpsuited emergency workers tried to vacuum oil from the beach. Elsewhere, naval cadets and sailors in green rain slickers used shovels and buckets to try scoop up the sludge as it was carried in by the tide.\nSea birds floated helpless in the blackened waves and fish washed ashore. Volunteers captured about 150 of the injured animals, hoping to save their lives by cleaning off the oil.\n"We've seen many dead fish and birds and many others in agony when we rescue them," said Ezequiel Navio, from the World Wildlife Fund's Spanish branch.\nSpain's Interior Ministry said the ship went down in an area where Portugal had responsibility for maritime rescue operations. Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Durao Barroso said it was "absolutely sure and confirmed" by the Portuguese Navy that the tanker was lying in Spanish waters.\nBoth Portugal and Spain had barred the salvagers from towing the ship to any of their ports to protect their fishing and tourism industries.\nThe tanker's Greek captain, Apostolus Maguras, was jailed on charges of disobeying authorities and harming the environment.\nIn Brussels, EU officials demanded governments move faster to enforce new inspection rules that could prevent such catastrophes.\nUnder the rules, ports are required to check at least 25 percent of all ships coming in, starting with older, single-hull vessels. Ships flying "flags of convenience" -- or registered in countries with lax safety, labor or tax rules -- are to be given priority, said Gilles Gantelet, spokesman for the European Commission.\nSpain's northwest coast has suffered several tanker accidents in recent years. The worst was in 1992, when the Greek tanker Aegean Sea lost 21.5 million gallons of crude oil when it ran aground near A Coruna.